Elma Turner book chat - October
There is no set book or need to register, just come along and chat to others about what you've been reading lately.
We meet at the Elma Turner Library on the second Tuesday of each month, 10.30am.
Suzanne Heywood Wavewalker: breaking free
From the age of 7 the author set sail with her family from the UK to the Pacific and they stayed away from ‘home’ for several years. The children had to educate themselves and Suzanne often felt used as a skivvy and cook for the crew and her family as she grew older. This is a story of survival through storms, sickness, no good drinking water, and lack of friendships. In spite of this Suzanne returned to the UK when she won a place at Oxford University
Chris Atkins Time after time: repeat offenders, the inside stories
I picked up this book as it has the same title as Jackie’s novel. The author was imprisoned for tax fraud, spending 2 ½ years in Wandsworth Prison. He wrote a very successful book while there. He writes about the prisoners he met and recidivism which is high and that the multiple courses designed to prevent repeat offending, haven’t worked. The only successful prison programme has been Grendon Prison which has seen low reoffending. Film-maker and former inmate Chris Atkins explains how our chaotic and inhumane system helps to create this bleak statistic.
Linda Margolin Royal The star on the grave
In 1940, as the Nazis sweep towards Lithuania, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara defies his government and secretly issues visas to fleeing Jewish refugees. After the war, Sugihara is dismissed and disappears into obscurity. Three decades later, in Australia, Rachel Margol is shocked when her engagement reveals a long-held family secret: she is Jewish. As she grapples with this deception and the dysfunction it has caused, unspoken tragedies from the past begin to come to light. When an opportunity arrives to visit Chiune Sugihara, the man who risked his life to save the Margols during World War II, Rachel becomes determined to meet him.
Simon Brett The Fethering series
Ex BBC TV producer sets this series in a mythical village called Fethering in West Sussex. Carol is a retired public servant who lives wither pet labrador, Gulliver. Jude moves in next door and a close relationship develops when the realise they like to ‘sleuth’. Jude is the same age, probably an ex-hippie and maybe once a mode, actress and restaurant owner and lived in France. She’s now a ‘healer’. There are 20 titles in this crim series. The library has 5 , 3 as ebooks Libby and 2 large print titles.
Sam Neill Did I ever tell you this?
Enjoyed the ending the most. An autobiography. Interesting and some remarkable moments. Born in Ireland, brought up in Dunedin and schooled in Christchurch, he goes on to work with renowned actors all over the world. Good accounts of his life outside acting.
Sebastian Junger In my time of dying
Junger was an award-winning war correspondent and an atheist, however after experiencing dreadful pain from an aneurysm and coming close to death Junger was visited by his dead father who invited him to join him. He survived which lead to Junger researching mortality and what happens after we die. Part medical drama and rational inquiry into the afterlife.
An Australian author. Based on a true story this novel is set in 1930s Sydney. Iris Webber was born in the Outback into poverty with a brutal father and traumatised mother. She eventually gets to Sydney but is sucked into prostitution, violence, scamming and petty thieving. She is imprisoned. Gritty and harrowing but totally immersive.
Nigel Packer The restoration of Otto Laird
I loved this book as the main protagonist, Otto, is utterly charming. Elderly, retired architect Otto worked in London in the 1960s and was renowned for his designs. His current quiet existence near Lake Geneva is interrupted when news of one of his most significant and revolutionary buildings, Marlowe House, is to be demolished. Determined to save the building Otto returns for the first time in 25 years to be part of a documentary about the tower block council estate and its inhabitants. Funny moving and endearing. Thoroughly recommended
